| 1986-11-26
Iran-Contra scandal: U.S. President Ronald Reagan announces the members of what will become known as the Tower Commission.
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| 1986-04-14
In retaliation for the April 5 bombing in West Berlin that killed two U.S. servicemen, U.S. president Ronald Reagan orders major bombing raids against Libya, killing 60 people.
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| 1986-04-26
A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.
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| 1986-01-12
Space Shuttle program: Congressman Bill Nelson lifts off from Kennedy Space Center aboard Columbia on mission STS-61C as a Mission Specialist.
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| 1986-10-31
The 5th congress of the Communist Party of Sweden is inaugurated. During the course of the congress the party name is changed to the Solidarity Party and the party ceases to be a communist party.
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| 1986-01-28
Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission – Space Shuttle Challenger explodes after liftoff killing all seven astronauts on board.
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| 1986-09-06
In Istanbul, two terrorists from Abu Nidal's organization kill 22 and wound six inside the Neve Shalom synagogue during Shabbat services.
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| 1986-10-10
An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people.
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| 1986-10-05
Israeli secret nuclear weapons are revealed. The British newspaper The Sunday Times ran Mordechai Vanunu's story on its front page under the headline: "Revealed — the secrets of Israel's nuclear arsenal."
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| 1986-10-21
In Lebanon, pro-Iranian kidnappers claim to have abducted American writer Edward Tracy (he is released in August 1991).
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| 1986-05-26
The European Community adopts the European flag.
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| 1986-12-26
The first long-running American television soap opera, Search for Tomorrow, airs its final episode after thirty-five years on the air.
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| 1986-07-06
Davis Phinney became the first American cyclist to win a road stage of the Tour de France.
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| 1986-04-29
Roger Clemens then of the Boston Red Sox sets a major league baseball record with 20 strikeouts in nine innings against the Seattle Mariners.
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| 1986-09-07
Desmond Tutu becomes the first black man to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa.
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| 1986-04-14
1 kilogram (2.2 lb) hailstones fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92. These are the heaviest hailstones ever recorded.
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| 1986-03-27
A car bomb explodes at Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, killing 1 police officer and injuring 21 people.
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| 1986-07-20
In South Africa, police fire tear gas into a church service for families of those held under the government's emergency decrees.
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| 1986-02-16
The Soviet liner MS Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
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| 1986-11-25
Iran Contra Affair: US Attorney General Edwin Meese announces that profits from covert weapons sales to Iran were illegally diverted to the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
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| 1986-05-14
The Pride of Baltimore is lost at sea.
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| 1986-10-16
Reinhold Messner becomes the first person to summit all 14 Eight-thousanders.
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| 1986-06-30
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Bowers v. Hardwick that states can outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults.
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| 1986-11-21
Iran-Contra Affair: National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary start to shred documents implicating them in the sale of weapons to Iran and channeling the proceeds to help fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
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| 1986-04-20
Pianist Vladimir Horowitz performs in his native Russia for the first time in 61 years.
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| 1986-03-01
– Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army, enters Athens, removing the tyrant Aristion who was supported by troops of Mithridates VI of Pontus.
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| 1986-03-04
The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Comet Halley and the first images ever of its nucleus.
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| 1986-06-09
The Rogers Commission releases its report on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
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| 1986-11-06
Sumburgh disaster – A British International Helicopters Boeing 234LR Chinook crashes 2.5 miles east of Sumburgh Airport killing 45 people. It is the deadliest civilian helicopter crash on record.
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| 1986-04-05
Three people are killed in the bombing of the La Belle Discothèque in West Berlin, Germany.
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| 1986-12-16
Revolt in Kazakhstan against Communist party, known as Zheltoksan, which becomes the first sign of ethnic strife during Gorbachev's tenure
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| 1986-02-26
People Power Revolution in the Philippines.
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| 1986-08-20
In Edmond, Oklahoma, U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.
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| 1986-10-09
The musical The Phantom of the Opera has its first performance at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.
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| 1986-11-03
Iran-Contra Affair: The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reports that the United States has been secretly selling weapons to Iran in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.
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| 1986-10-12
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the People's Republic of China
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| 1986-03-24
The Loscoe gas explosion leads to new UK laws on landfill gas migration and gas protection on landfill sites.
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| 1986-02-25
People Power Revolution: President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the first Filipino woman president.
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| 1986-09-23
Jim Deshaies of the Houston Astros sets the major-league record by striking out the first eight batters of the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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| 1986-06-04
Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to espionage for selling top secret United States military intelligence to Israel.
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| 1986-09-05
Pan Am Flight 73 with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport.
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| 1986-05-07
Canadian Patrick Morrow became the first person to climb each of the Seven Summits.
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| 1986-01-13
A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.
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| 1986-07-23
In London, Prince Andrew, Duke of York marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey.
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| 1986-02-28
Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.
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| 1986-01-01
Aruba becomes independent of Curaçao, though it remains in free association with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
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| 1986-07-18
A tornado is broadcast live on KARE television in Minnesota when the station's helicopter pilot makes a chance encounter.
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| 1986-11-05
USS Rentz, USS Reeves and USS Oldendorf visit Qingdao (Tsing Tao) China — the first US Naval visit to China since 1949.
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| 1986-02-27
The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis.
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| 1986-09-07
Gen. Augusto Pinochet, president of Chile, escapes attempted assassination.
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| 1986-10-28
The centenary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty is celebrated in New York Harbor.
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| 1986-10-11
Cold War: U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.
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| 1986-05-16
The Seville Statement on Violence is adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, in Seville, Spain.
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| 1986-01-16
First meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
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| 1986-12-19
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from internal exile in Gorky.
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| 1986-01-25
The National Resistance Movement topples the government of Tito Okello in Uganda.
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| 1986-07-09
The New Zealand Parliament passes the Homosexual Law Reform Act legalising homosexuality in New Zealand.
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| 1986-01-11
The Gateway Bridge, Brisbane in Queensland, Australia is officially opened.
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| 1986-06-22
Diego Maradona scored his infamous Hand of God goal against England in the World Cup quarter-final. Argentina went on to win the match 2-1.
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| 1986-08-28
United States Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth is sentenced to 365 years imprisonment for espionage for the Soviet Union.
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| 1986-10-24
Nezar Hindawi is sentenced to 45 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down by a British court, for the attempted bombing on an El Al flight at Heathrow. After the verdict, the United Kingdom breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, claiming that Hindawi is helped by Syrian officials.
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| 1986-01-24
Voyager 2 passes within 81,500 km (50,680 miles) of Uranus.
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| 1986-04-28
The United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to transit the Suez Canal, navigating from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to relieve the USS Coral Sea.
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| 1986-04-15
The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a bombing in West Germany that killed two U.S. servicemen.
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| 1986-04-11
The FBI Miami shootout between eight Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and two heavily-armed and well-trained gunmen.
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| 1986-09-30
Mordechai Vanunu, who revealed details of Israel covert nuclear program to British media, is kidnapped in Rome, Italy.
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| 1986-03-31
A Mexicana Boeing 727 en route to Puerto Vallarta erupts in flames and crashes in the mountains northwest of Mexico City, killing 166.
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| 1986-08-08
Altaf Hussain's address at Nishtar Park Karachi, when Muttahida Qaumi Movement first comes to prominence.
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| 1986-08-06
A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimeters (13 inches) of rain in a day on Sydney.
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| 1986-07-03
U.S. President Ronald Reagan presides over the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.
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| 1986-02-19
Akkaraipattu massacre: the Sri Lankan Army massacres 80 Tamil farm workers the eastern province of Sri Lanka.
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| 1986-11-03
The Federated States of Micronesia gain independence from the United States of America.
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| 1986-12-31
A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
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| 1986-10-03
TASCC, a superconducting cyclotron at the Chalk River Laboratories, is officially opened.
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| 1986-04-20
Professional basketball player Michael Jordan sets all-time record for points in an NBA playoff game with 63 against the Boston Celtics.
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| 1986-08-21
Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometer range.
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| 1986-04-29
A fire at the Central library of the City of Los Angeles Public Library damages or destroys 400,000 books and other items.
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| 1986-02-07
Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.
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| 1986-03-07
Challenger Disaster: Divers from the USS Preserver locate the crew cabin of Challenger on the ocean floor.
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| 1986-04-25
Mswati III is crowned King of Swaziland, succeeding his father Sobhuza II.
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| 1986-10-29
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway.
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| 1986-04-17
The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly ends.
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| 1986-03-31
Six metropolitan county councils are abolished in England.
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| 1986-02-22
Start of the People Power Revolution in the Philippines.
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| 1986-01-23
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
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| 1986-10-27
The British government suddenly deregulates financial markets, leading to a total restructuring of the way in which they operate in the country, in an event now referred to as the Big Bang.
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| 1986-11-25
The King Fahd Causeway is officially opened in the Persian Gulf.
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| 1986-10-16
Ron Arad, Israeli Weapons System Officer, is captured by Lebanese Shi'ite militia Amal.
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| 1986-08-31
The Soviet passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov sinks in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev, killing 423.
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| 1986-01-20
Martin Luther King, Jr. day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
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| 1986-05-03
Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes in an airliner (Flight UL512) at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka.
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| 1986-08-31
Aeroméxico Flight 498 collides with a Piper PA-28 over Cerritos, California, killing 67 in the air and 15 on the ground.
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| 1986-01-15
The Living Seas opens at EPCOT Center in Walt Disney World, Florida.
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| 1986-10-19
Samora Machel, President of Mozambique and a prominent leader of FRELIMO, and 33 others die when their Tupolev 134 plane crashes into the Lebombo Mountains.
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| 1986-09-27
Clifford Lee Burton of Metallica dies in tour bus accident.
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| 1986-12-23
Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world without aerial or ground refueling.
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| 1986-11-22
Mike Tyson defeats Trevor Berbick to become youngest Heavyweight champion in boxing history.
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| 1986-01-01
The Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic are admitted into the European Community.
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| 1986-02-19
The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for 10 of those years.
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